Silas Fransen is a graduating senior in the Art History major. Through the Office of Student Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR) Undergraduate Research Scholars Program he worked with Dr. LaNitra Berger to organize the exhibit Fountain of Truth: Women Artists and Their Perspectives on Aging. The exhibit gathered five artists from the Northern Virginia area to discuss their relationship to aging.
Fountain of Truth captured a variety of deep reflections on what it means to age as a woman and addresses issues such as self-worth and social expectations. The artists of the exhibition showed the diverse yet empowering experiences of aging and growing into themselves. Historically, women have not been in control of the narrative of aging and, in many cases, have been made to feel lesser for it. The goal for this project was to inspire women to feel more open to talking about their own experiences with aging. It also sought to expose the public to a variety of experiences and conflicting feelings about what it means to age as a woman.
This project was inspired by Zirka Z. Filipczak’s 2000 article "Why Are There No Older Women in Heaven?" (Antwerp Royal Museum Annual, 2000), which argues that during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, women’s virtue was linked to youthful appearance. As a result, older women were often associated with negative traits like lust and envy. This bias toward youthful beauty persists in American culture today, pressuring women to meet unrealistic standards and pushing older women out of public attention.
The exhibition ran from February 24th to April 11th at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas and was organized with the help of Mason Exhibitions.